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Stolen truck smash-up leads to jail sentence

Darren Stewart
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Feb 28/03) - John Koe was sentenced to 16 months in jail after he stole a pickup truck, smashed a telephone booth and a car, and led police on a wild chase through Yellowknife late last year.

Judge Robert Halifax noted that it was Koe's first appearance in adult court but said the 20-year-old's lengthy record in youth court was a factor in the sentencing.

"I can appreciate things haven't been so good for you so far, Mr. Koe, but if you continue on this way things will get a lot worse."

A witness saw Koe breaking into Garth Wood's white pickup truck and backing over a NorthwesTel phone booth at 6:30 pm on Dec. 28.

Koe later struck a car and pushed it several feet at the Shell gas station. Koe fled the gas station in the pickup truck and police caught up to him 15 minutes later on Forrest Drive. Koe sped up and careened around a corner as he attempted to escape the police, who followed with their sirens and lights on.

Koe jumped out of the truck, leaving it in drive. He fled up a driveway on Con Drive. Police and Wood and his son chased Koe on foot and he was cornered close to the scene.

Koe caused close to $1,500 damage to the pickup truck, $600 to the car he struck at the gas station and $3,500 damage to the telephone booth.

Halifax ordered Koe to pay $5,000 to Wood, $600 to the owner of the car, and $1,500 to NorthwesTel in restitution charges.

"Why should these people just eat it while you walk away shrugging your shoulders?" Halifax asked.

Koe said he doesn't remember the incident because he was drunk.

He was tested at the police station with a blood alcohol level of 90 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood. The legal limit for driving is 80 milligrams.

A duffel bag with 72 cans of beer was also found in the back seat of the truck. Koe was on probation for an earlier offence, and didn't have a valid driver's licence at the time.

Defence counsel James Mahon suggested that Koe had a "dreadful upbringing," and was taken from his biological parents by social services when he was seven.